No hot water from kitchen tap. Rest ok

Niall F

Hi, my heating is fine. Hot water from bathroom taps. Cold water from kitchen tap but no hot water. Actually, nothing at all. Not even a drip. I assume something is frozen but I've no idea what or it could be something else. The kitchen tap is a mixer?? Mightn't be the right word, but cold and hot water streams come out of the same tap, depending on which one (or both) you've turned on.

Victor

Has someone turned off a valve they shouldn't?

Possibility of something frozen somewhere, check the pipe run as best you can, especially in the attic and along external walls.

Niall F

Definitely not a valve. However, it has come back of its own accord. That is the good news. The bad news is it seems to be a warning (whether by design or by fluke) that the water is about to go. Reason I say that is I was talking to one of my neighbours. This has happened to about 3 or 4 of them and the same thing happened. 2 days later, no water in the tank in the attic. So I think I'll take it as a warning.
I appreciate the response. Thank you.

Victor

Councils are reporting lots of broken water mains around the country.

burger1979

is there any way to treat a frozen pipe other than waiting for it to thaw out? i have the same problem the hot in the kitchen tap is not working but the cold is all the other hot taps work though. the pipe goes under the sink and into the wall its cool to the touch but not freezing cold which leads me to think that the freeze in the pipe might be in the wall itself. this is not good dont fancy noticing a leak in the wall after a few months and having to rip out the wall fix it.

is there any way to prevent frozen pipes in the first place?

thanks

burger

tpotter

burger1979 wrote: »

is there any way to prevent frozen pipes in the first place?

The best way is simply to make sure the inside of your house stays warm, as this heat will transfer to the bottom of the house and keep your indoor pipes from freezing. This doesn't mean you have to keep the house at 70, but just don't let it stay at freezing during the day.

Generally, enough heat will transfer through the floor to keep the pipes under your house from freezing, but you can also use a small space heater or if you have a water heater in the crawlspace, this will provide some heat as well.

The biggest risk are pipes that are outdoors and exposed, so you would want to cover these sorts of pipes to prevent freezing.

Also, by leaving your sinks dripping during the night, this will help prevent the pipes from freezing.

burger1979

the heat has been on most of the day and also we have it timed to come on for about an hour in the night time. the pipe is close to an external wall and in fact there is the internal cavity/wall and then beyond that the external wall if you get my drift. anyway we dont have a small electric heater but i can run the hair dryer over it and see if that works.

thanks

burger

Niall F

The pipe that runs from the sink where it comes into the house runs along the inside of the external wall and goes up and then across to the attic. I'd have thought it would have run along under the floor and then up to the attic but no, it runs as close to the external wall as it possibly can, therefore getting practically no heat from the house and obviously this is where it has frozen. Still have some water in the tank so ok for the moment. Apart from ripping the inside wall off, is there a way to get to it or do I have just have to wait until it thaws (whenever that is!!)?

burger1979

i guess just have to wait till it thaws out, i have chased my pipe and like you it close to the external wall in the kitchen, then it runs behind the plasterboards which then runs behind the kitchen cabinets and from there who knows. I got a hair dryer and left it under the sink with the press closed for a while and it heated the pipes but still nothing moved which has me wondering if the freeze is somewhere else along the pipe line. who knows the the thaw is going to come, looking at the weather forums its not going to be soon. i just hope that there are no leaks as this would mean a big job to fix.

mobpd

same here (no hot in kitchen tap - but all other hot taps ok)
does this mean that the hot water would be fed through a pipe from the hot water tank upstairs separate to the rest of the taps in house - is that normal?
I'm wondering if we should carry on using the hot from the other taps whislt it is still running?

John Matrix

We have the same thing happening, no hot water in the kitchen but shower and other taps seem ok. No water going into the dishwasher it seems, keeps saying inlet/drain error and cuts out, its weird thought it'd use the mains supply

AMS2010

I'm in the same boat - no hot water in the kitchen, electric shower not working either since yesterday. I'm presuming it'll turn up as a burst pipe either in the wall or under the kitchen floor sooner or later

What I'm wondering is if it's ok to use my fire which has a back boiler? The central heating system (oil) is working.

marion1966

I thought it was just me , all taps working but not a drip from hot mixer tap in kitchen

sfakiaman

AMS2010 wrote: »

I'm in the same boat - no hot water in the kitchen, electric shower not working either since yesterday. I'm presuming it'll turn up as a burst pipe either in the wall or under the kitchen floor sooner or later

What I'm wondering is if it's ok to use my fire which has a back boiler? The central heating system (oil) is working.

In the normal scheme of things electric showers are on there own exclusive pipe from the cold tank. Hot water supplies are taken off from the top of the hot tank and require pressure from the cold tank to force water through. It is likely that the water in the cold tank has fallen below the level of the outlets. The kitchen cold tap is normally fed from the mains, if you have water there check that the ballcock in the cold tank isn't frozen.

In the cases where there is hot water in other taps but not in the kitchen it's possible there may be an air lock in the system. A possible cure could be to force water from the cold supply to the hot supply by putting your thumb over the mixer tap and turning both taps on.

burger1979

been at the pipe leading to the mixer in the kitchen for the hot water with a hair dryer and also a little electric fan heater and still nothing the pipe itself it getting hot but not a drop out of the tap very very annoying, had the heating on all night and still nothing. that said the water tank in the roof seems to be filling with water ok and the rest of the taps are still working as they should be, i want a thaw and i want it now, a nice gradual thaw.

Niall F

My issue of lack of water from the hot tap in the kitchen re-materialised this morning. No sign of anything. Filled up the water tank in the attic. Shortly thereafter, turned on tap again and water came out steaming it was so hot!! Don't know if it's coincidental or not, because yesterday evening it came back too of its own accord. Can't be sure of time though. I haven't fixed the original problem of frozen pipe going to the attic, I've just circumvented it. I'm hoping the short term fix will keep until the pipe thaws out (without bursting either!!) because I've no way of getting to it without making a big hole somewhere. Not doing that unless it's absolutely necessary. I like the house the way it is.

Bif

Hot water on sink not working, everthing else ok this morning. Checked main tank and its fine. I pulled back the kick borad under the presses and pused in a small fan heater. I also blocked of a nearby cavity vent in the wall. Later this afternoon the flow came back and there doesn't appear to be any leaks (fingers crossed). Mind you it was minus 6 at midday where I am :eek:. Hope it doesn't get any colder tonight as I am wondering how much more can the house take. It was minus 11 last night..

AMS2010

AMS2010 wrote: »

I'm in the same boat - no hot water in the kitchen, electric shower not working either since yesterday. I'm presuming it'll turn up as a burst pipe either in the wall or under the kitchen floor sooner or later


Both my kitchen tap and electric shower are back in action. Not sure if it's just by chance or down to anything I did ... but in case this helps anybody... what I did was
1. left a small blow heater on overnight in the hope that the underfloor pipes would thaw
2. today I moved the heater to face the wall that cases the pipe.
I'm talking about over 24 hours of heating the room (BTW the kitchen is extremely poorly insulated and next on my DIY list)

Fingers crossed it stays that way. Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Newtown Hall

I had the hot water in my tap running at 11pm last night, and this morning at 8am not a drop. I've since discovered that my dishwasher and the spicket to the outside is also not working I'm very, very worried about a burst pipe especially with the worst to still come! The plumbing is all plastic so I'm seriously hoping that that will help a little. Any advice will be much appreciated - I have the heat, the oven, and a secondary source all going at the same time to try and cut down on damage.

suitseir

I read on some one of the posts that a frozen pipe does not necessarily mean a burst pipe happening when the thaw comes. Why now put a hot water bottle under the sink on the pipes which might help give a gradual thaw and around the feed into dishwasher as well.

Newtown Hall wrote: »

I had the hot water in my tap running at 11pm last night, and this morning at 8am not a drop. I've since discovered that my dishwasher and the spicket to the outside is also not working I'm very, very worried about a burst pipe especially with the worst to still come! The plumbing is all plastic so I'm seriously hoping that that will help a little. Any advice will be much appreciated - I have the heat, the oven, and a secondary source all going at the same time to try and cut down on damage.

tpotter

Newtown Hall wrote: »

The plumbing is all plastic so I'm seriously hoping that that will help a little.

Usually, plastic piping cracks easier than copper piping, as copper has a little bit of give to it. Of course the flip side to that is plastic piping is much easier to fix and is inexpensive as well, especially if you don't mind getting your hands dirty.

With that said, as suitseir mentions, frozen pipes do not always crack...

byte

I had a similar issue with hot water not working on 3 sinks the other night.

I went into the crawlspace where the pipes run, and noticed there was one main hot pipe feeding all 3 sinks. The pipework was all insulated, however the copper/brass T's were not, so I assumed that the freezing would happen in these locations.

I stuck a hairdryer to the first T, feeding the first sink, and left it a while (hairdryer seems slow at heating the metal connections). After about 20 mins of heating, the first tap sprung into action, as did the rest in the chain.

I guess I was lucky that the piping was easily accessed. I have since covered over all the joints with fibreglass insulation. Hopefully it won't recur!

Niall F

I'm back in action. Removing the kickboards under the kitchen presses and a bit of time did the trick for me (along with turning the kitchen into a furnace for a day!!). I nearly froze when I took the kickboards off. I couldn't believe how much heat they were keeping in.
So next time there's some freezing weather those kickboards will be coming back off. It's been back a few days so I'm assuming if there was something burst, I'd have seen some evidence by now.